Welcome to the Issues and Arguments WikiEdit

This is not a normal wiki.

If you've looked at other wikis before, you know that most tend to take the form of an encyclopedia, in the vein of Wikipedia, arguably the most famous wiki. Typically, each page is a long-winded, prose description of one topic. Here, though, each page is a single claim about a single subject, phrased as simply, briefly, and neutrally as possible, followed by lists of known evidence, related sites, and the known rebuttals or responses to that claim. So this wiki is more about making a directory or catalog of information instead of a set of "articles" per se. It is intended as a road map of the arguments that exist regarding complicated issues, not as a place for us to show off our persuasive writing skills.

Why Would You Believe Something Like That?Edit

If you've ever asked that question about somebody's political views, this may be the place for you to get your answer, without all the emotion and bluster that typically accompanies that kind of information. Learn how people defend their beliefs and what they think might be wrong with yours. Respond by adding your own claims and rebuttals, but please bear in mind the following rules:

1. Write claims and arguments without using too many words. If you want to describe your reasoning, do it by adding responses and then responses to those responses.

2. Phrase everything neutrally. Choose wording with the least amount of emotional content that you can think of.

3. Try to avoid having the same claim (and its arguments and rebuttals) repeated multiple places. If a statement appears on more than one page, it should get its own page, and all the other occurrences should just link there for further debate. That avoids having the same argument many different times in many different contexts. Also, please avoid the temptation to add something that's just a rephrasing of an existing argument.

4. Stay cool. Anyone can be right, and anyone can be wrong. This is just a place to store everybody's reasons. If the argument you find most compelling is missing, don't get angry, just add it!

Latest activityEdit